Level Platforms Extends Remote Monitoring and Management to the Cloud

Level Platforms launches Managed Cloud Services with immediate availability of monitoring for Microsoft Online Services

May 14, 2009

Ottawa, ON, Canada – May 14, 2009 – LPI Level Platforms Inc., the global leader in remote monitoring and management software for solution providers and managed services providers, today launched the first phase of its new Managed Cloud Services capability extending IT manageability to include not only local IT infrastructure but also IT delivered from the Cloud.  Certified Managed Cloud Services vendors at launch include the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite featuring Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, as well as groupSPARK’s private label Microsoft Exchange hosting services. 

Cloud Services including Software as a Service (SaaS) applications have begun to enter the small and midsized (SMB) market at an increasing pace.   AMI Partners 2008 U.S. Small and Medium Business Applications & Solutions Market Overview reported that 21% of SMBs used Cloud Services, while the 2009 Microsoft Market Insight Report  indicate a growth of 20% in SMB customers’ use of SaaS in 2009, with an expected adoption rate of 86% by the end of the year. 

Most Cloud Services rely on local data, applications and infrastructure and end user IT performance increasingly depends on the effective interaction of cloud and local IT technologies.  The growth of Cloud Services has created a serious blind spot for solution providers managing their customers’ IT focused on traditional local IT infrastructure.  They need a way to monitor and manage this newly critical part of the extended customer IT environment. 

With Level Platforms Managed Cloud Services, solution providers can now monitor and manage the health of both local infrastructure and Cloud Services from one central web-based console allowing a complete view of the entire computing environment of all their SMB customers – resulting in the following new and very significant benefits:

• Much faster proactive remediation of customer application issues made possible by the single view of the entire IT environment resulting in a better IT experience and eliminating finger pointing among multiple providers.   The solution provider can quickly determine if the source of an application problem is related to the performance of the Cloud Services provider or the result of issues with the customer’s local network, including router or switch problems, local PC configuration, conflicting bandwidth-heavy applications, etc. and take actions to correct the problems, often before the end customer is even aware of the issue.
• Bringing Cloud Services into the mainstream of channel sales and distribution as solution providers can now bundle Cloud Services into their managed services offering delivering an improved IT experience as well as fully integrated customer reporting showing the health of their customers’ entire IT environment.  Solution providers now have the tools to embrace Cloud Services within their business models, replacing declining revenues from managing local servers with new revenues related to the increasing complexity of managing their customers’ extended IT environments.
• Supporting the continued evolution of solution providers’ key roles as Trusted Advisors to their SMB customers offering support for the full range of technologies relevant to their customers’ success.

With 3000 managed services providers in 30 countries serving many tens of thousands of SMBs, Level Platforms has emerged as the global market leader based on its commitment to its next-generation, standards-based, agentless remote monitoring and management.  Driving this commitment has been the belief that client server computing and the legacy agent-based management platforms designed to support traditional servers, PCs and LANs were approaching end-of-life, with network-based computing including virtualization, cloud services and SaaS, representing the future model of computing. 

“Operating as technical advisor to our clients means we not only need to be knowledgeable about the latest and greatest tools; we need to be able to match the right solutions to specific client needs effectively, now and as they evolve,” said Steve Hand, President and CEO of Know Technology in Portland Maine. “Managed Workplace can handle it all: on-premise, hosted, and software plus services deployment of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite Standard version and groupSPARK’s private label hosted Exchange. The far reach and adaptability is built in from day one, which is why Managed Workplace is the core of how we will provide support to customers moving forward.”

“Microsoft’s execution of the software plus services model continues to advance and is strengthened with the participation of the global partner community,” said Sassan Saedi, Group Product Manager, Breadth Partner Programs and Readiness, Microsoft Corp. “Services like Level Platforms’ Managed Cloud Services further aid solution providers to deliver a comprehensive IT experience for SMBs, whether that experience is on-premise, online or a combination of both.”

“We are excited to be part of this breakthrough announcement,” said Bill Flynn, Senior Executive Officer, groupSPARK division of mindSHIFT Technologies.  “Solution providers around the world leverage the performance of our private label hosted Exchange services for their thousands of small business customers.  Their ability to provide these services as part of their complete managed services offering offers huge benefits to everyone”.

“Ingram Micro Seismic is the world’s largest Level Platforms hosted provider and is currently offering a suite of services delivered from the cloud, including hosted Exchange from groupSPARK,” said Justin Crotty Vice President Services, Ingram Micro. “Seismic partners will be able to immediately benefit from the new Level Platforms Cloud Services Solution Sets allowing them to proactively identify potential end user performance issues and quickly determine their cause among potential failures across the full range of underlying technologies and applications both on premise and delivered from the cloud.  This represents a strong move from local infrastructure management to address the coming challenges of cloud computing and allow solution providers to extend their value and drive higher margins.”

“Solution providers have built significant businesses managing their customers’ local servers, desktops and network devices,” said Peter Sandiford, CEO Level Platforms.  “But as local infrastructure becomes a declining part of their end customers’ IT budgets, they need to embrace the management of the complete extended IT environment including on premise and cloud-based technologies. Level Platforms solution provider partners will clearly emerge as the ultimate beneficiaries as Cloud Services drives the next wave of IT growth”.

Level Platforms maintains a central library of Policy Modules incorporating best practices management for over 300 leading products and applications found in small and midsized businesses.  With the introduction of Managed Cloud Services, Level Platforms today introduced a corresponding set of Cloud Services central policies known as Solution Sets.  Level Platforms partners can download Solution Sets for Microsoft BPOS and groupSPARK offerings from the Level Platforms Partner portal.

About Level Platforms
With 3000 Partners in 30 countries, Level Platforms is the leading provider of managed services software for IT solution providers servicing small and mid-sized end customers through its award-winning agentless remote monitoring and management software, Managed Workplace.  www.levelplatforms.com.

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